Writer & Director Wesley Enoch AM
Wesley Enoch is a writer and director. He hails from Stradbroke Island (Minjeribah) and is a proud Quandamooka man.
Wesley is the QUT Indigenous Chair of Creative Industries.
Previously Wesley has been the Artistic Director at Sydney Festival from 2017 – 2020; Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts; Artistic Director at Ilbijerri Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative and the Associate Artistic Director at Belvoir Street Theatre. Wesley’s other residencies include Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company; the 2002 Australia Council Cite Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris and the Australia Council Artistic Director for the Australian Delegation to the 2008 Festival of Pacific Arts. He was creative consultant, segment director and indigenous consultant for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Wesley has written and directed iconic Indigenous theatre productions. The 7 Stages of Grieving which Wesley directed and co-wrote with Deborah Mailman was first produced in 1995 and continues to tour both nationally and internationally. Others include The Sunshine Club for Queensland Theatre Company and a new adaptation of Medea by Euripides’; Black Medea. His play The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table won the 2005 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award.
In 2004 Wesley directed the original stage production of The Sapphires which won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Play. Other productions include Appropriate, Black Cockatoo, Stolen, Riverland, Mother Courage and her Children, Headful of Love, Bombshells, Black Diggers, Gasp!, Country Song, Happy Days and The Odd Couple, I am Eora, One Night The Moon, The Man From Mukinupin, Yibiung, Parramatta Girls, Capricornia, The Cherry Pickers and Romeo & Juliet.
Wesley’s most recent productions include A Raisin in the Sun, for Sydney Theatre Company, and the musical The Sunshine Club, which Wesley wrote and directed for Queensland Theatre. In 2021 Wesley received the Dorothy Crawford Award For Outstanding Contribution to the Profession and the Industry at the AWGIEs.
Composer John Rodgers
QLD Conservatorium of Music trained with a 2018 Doctor of Philosophy (QLD Conservatorium Griffith University), he is one of Australia’s most prolific composers. His career spans over 30 years. He has led the Australian Youth Orchestra, QLD Youth Orchestra, co-created Madam Bones Brothel and was a founding member of the Australian Art Orchestra.
Highlights include Glass for Scott Tinkler performed with the London Sinfonietta, and Inferno for Elision (both for the Adelaide Festival), the latter which Rodgers described as a “musico/theatrical translation of Dante’s version of hell”, Where The Heart Is (Expression Dance Co & Helpmann Award nominee), The Dream Catchers (received an Arts QLD Fellowship & performed at the QLD Music Festival) & writing songs for Pearly Black. He has been the musical director (MD) & composer for 40+ theatre productions including The Sunshine Club (winning a Deadly Award), Exit The King (dir: Neil Armfield & 2007 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Score). He has performed & collaborated with Indigenous artists including Wesley Enoch, Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter & Dan Sultan and was the MD for the Shadow King (Malthouse), Ngangwurra Means Heart (Black Arm Band) and more recently, Failure of Communication for Katie Noonan & the Brodsky String Quartet.
Producer Christine Harris
Managing Director of HIT Productions, Christine Harris has been a significant Australian producer for 29 years.
Recognised as Australia’s Premier Theatre Touring Company, HIT has completed 116 tours and is committed to touring outstanding mainstream productions including First Nations works to metro, regional & remote venues Australia wide. Since HIT’s first tour of Hotel Sorrento in 1999, Christine has delivered some of the most extensive tours ever staged in Australia including David Williamson’s The Club, Louis Nowra’s Cosi, Joanna Murray-Smith’s Love Child, Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year, Jonathan Biggins’ Australia Day & the 2019-2020/2022 national tours of Tony Briggs’ The Sapphires.